By Dele Ogbodo
In order to meet Federal Government’s food safety and security agenda and to guarantee a safe environment ecosystem, the Federal Ministry of Environment through National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), has ramped up a 2 day robust Communications Workshop with its strategic partners: the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCON), the National Quarantine Services (NAQS), the National Agency for Food Drug Administration Council (NAFDAC), the National Seed Council and members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm in Abuja.
Fielding questions from journalists at the sideline of the event at the weekend in, the Director General (DG)/CEO, of NBMA, Dr. Agnes Yemisi Asagbra, said the overarching mandate of the agency is to ensure the safety of human lives, animal life, plant life, biodiversity, the environment as a whole, with practice of modern biotechnology.
She however acknowledged that the practice of modern biotechnology agriculture can come with associated risk even though the practice has enormous benefits for food security, employment creation, medicine, pharmaceutical developments and the overall development of the country.
Asagbra, said: “This is one of the major reasons, why we have brought stakeholders from across sectors of the economy for this communication workshop including our staff.
“To give them the core understanding of biosafety as it ought to be, being professional, being transparent and being scientifically-based and that is why we have to have this workshop.”
The DG frowned at the torrents of misrepresentations, fear and falsehoods that was wickedly fuelled from few quarters on the breakthroughs and positive advances made in the country through the practice of biotechnology especially concerning the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), adding: “Because we would attest to the fact that quite recently there has been a lot out there in the social media causing fear, causing panic in the Nigerian populace.”
With Nigeria’s population and the global food situation, she, stressed that that is not what should be happening at this time. “It is not what we should be doing considering what is happening around the world on the global economy.
“So, we felt the need to be able to have this workshop on what the agency does to ensure of our food and the environment.
“And we feel that the front end of 2025 is quite an apt time to have this workshop, so that people come into the year with informed information about what biosafety is all about.”
According to her, the federal government is passionate about making sure that the populace are safe from the risk of modern biotechnology.
NBMA, she added has been mandated to carry this out, explaining that without NBMA, in regulating biotechnology that means the government has left the populace to harm.
“We know at the agency that food security tops President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which is inextricably linked up to agriculture-biotechnology practices and NBMA regulating the practice that we can have a food secure nation.”
She said it was exciting that in 2024, the lawmakers now have a better understanding and have made a U-turn now, explaining that instead of saying ban GMO or don’t allow this to work, they seem to be saying label these products that are in the market so that people can make informed choices and have food to eat.
On labelling of GMOs/products, she admitted: “Very soon we will have all the information about the labeling because it is something we are doing with other stakeholders. But you will get to have the full details very soon and hopefully before the end of the first quarter all this will be out.
On the workload of regulation to ensure safety of the products, Asagbra, said NBMA has the capacity and therefore its workload not overwhelming.
She said: “We have the quarantine service, because before any product can be brought into the country, it has to go through us. It is like a button kind of arrangement.
“We have to check the products to see that it is okay before quarantine. We will now take it up from there. And then we have NAFDAC, the Seed Council, the FCCPC and other stakeholders and so each agency does its work in collaborative manner for the safety of the country.
“Because we now have to bring all together to now assess and know is it safe. And that is why in National Biosafety Management Agency, we have these two ad hoc committees.
“We have the National Biosafety committee. Then we have the National Biosafety technical sub-committee, so these two bodies is drawn up and it involves experts and stakeholders.
“For the NBTS, that is the technical aspect where the professors and researchers are and they are really involved in that research.”
She excitedly announced that the agency has given permit for three crops, the Bt cotton, the Tela maize, and PBR cowpea/beans.
“So when we are talking about cowpea, the kind of experts that form the MBTS are different from the ones who would do the cotton.
“Because we have to make sure they are experts. And in all these experts, we have certain agencies also that have to be in the technical sub-committee.
“Then we have the National Biosafety Committee. That one is general. We have other stakeholders there too.
“So each of them assess the dossier that has been submitted by the permit request.
“So those ones have to submit it. And then we also, just to not do it that way, we make sure that the public is involved.
“When we have those dossiers, for about 21 days, it is out there. So if you have any suggestion, if you have any query, you are able it to send it to NBMA.
“So all these will be added together and given to the National Biosafety committee and National Biosafety subcommittee, Technical subcommittee.
“So they review it and all these are brought together. After that, it now comes to NBMA for ratification, for final decision on the approval.
“So if they have the different agencies and they do that, we still have them we bring them together to work with us and then before we have our own submissions.”
She regretted however that there were a lot of misinformation, falsehood, assuming a lot of things. It’s really coming from the so-called anti-GMOs, adding that there is no doubt that international politics, trade and business may been into the nexus.
She said: “When our farmers grow these GMO crops, the insecticides and the herbicides that you use is minimal. Probably you can spray 2-3 times, but if it is a non-GMOs, you can spray up to 10 times or 8 times and as you are aware there’s one market out there.
“So, and also, because I think sometimes bad news just spreads faster than good news.
“Personally, I think a few people are just mischief and they’re just wicked because, you know, people don’t have enough food and here we are talking about food insecurity and there’s a technology practiced all over the world to increase food yield.
“And then you come and you scare people who don’t even have much to eat, telling them that if you eat this thing, you will die. You will have one disease or the other and these are quite traumatic.
“With biotechnology, there is increased yield and the farmer’s life is better. You can imagine for the socio-economic issues especially considering the fact that our PBR cowpea, is grown on Nigerian soil and that is highly indigenous.
“Last year, you know, the weather was a bit harsh, there were times that there no rains and yet our farmers the PBR cowpea with increased yields while the normal crops had losses.”
According to her, But with this agri-biotechnology, the insects that devastate our crops have been taken care of, stressing that these are one of the benefits to guard against insect infestation, to guard against drought and ability to withstand salt, high salt in areas. These are some of the benefits.
And then you have increased yield. So these are some of the benefits. And that is why, again, you would say, okay, the risk and that is why NBMA is in place, to make sure that these risks are taken care of. And that’s why we have a risk assessment.
On her new year, message, the DG, added: “We will be more committed doing our work, making sure that we do rigorous risk assessment to make sure that these agri-products are safe for Nigerians to consume, safe for the animals, safe for environment because these GM crops are used for food, they are used for feed, and they are used for processing.”
